End PAN PAIN

Friday

May 24, 2013 at 11:06 PMMay 24, 2013 at 11:18 PM

Laura Kurella

QUIP: I have a very lovely, very well made Nordic Ware mini bundt pan – pictured above – that strikes fear in me every time I think about using it because of past experiences with it that leaves me wrestling with the little cakes removal - in one whole piece! It never fails that not all of them will release and so I end up concealing that fact with lots of glaze or powdered sugar, which does a fairly good job at hiding the fact that the cakes have been a bit mangled. However, since they do make just a beautiful presentation, I knew I couldn’t give up searching for a way to make using this pan less painful.

TIP: There is a trick to preparing these pans. It requires combining equal parts of shortening, oil and flour and then using a pastry brush to apply it, making sure to get every nook and cranny coated but, not so much that when the cake comes out its coated with flour.

There is also a few tricks to unmolding the cake too. Just before the cake is finished baking, place a folded bath towel in the sink and saturate it with steaming hot water. Keep the towel in the sink. When the cake is finished baking, place it directly- pan side down – on the wet towel. Let the pan rest there for a full ten seconds then invert the cake onto a cooling rack. The cake will come out clean and whole without sticking. Use caution as cakes are very delicate when hot and can break apart easily. If the cake starts to break apart, leave it in the pan to cool for 20 minutes then try to unmold again.

If that fails, the no fail way is to pop the pan in the freezer and once cake is solid, invert.